HD formatting takes 5-6 hours!!

[axilleas]

Hi to all,

I have a notebook and I wanted to install new OS on it (WIN XP SP2).

But the hard drive formatting procedure with the CD OS bootable disk takes a long time( 5-6 hours and still is in 80%!!)

Any ideas about this?

Thank you

 

[wolluf]

Were there problems under old o/s?

How large is the drive?

Is it the full format option you've taken (most people use the quick option, which is perfectly ok if the drive is).

Might be worth running drive manufacturer's diagnostic on the drive (usually available on their website) to check its status.

btw - what was previous o/s - and is the machine spec ok for XP (enough RAM & fast enough processor?)

 

[hotfusion]

Could it be spending a lot of time 'trying to recover bad clusters'?

Regards, Andy.
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[Frank4d]

I have had this problem before with a couple of drives where the drive was just plain corrupted (nothing to do with bad clusters). I restored the drives by running the manufacturer's zero fill utility, then partitioning, and then reformatting. Most drive manufacturer's website support sections offer a free zero fill utility.

 

[cdogg]

When you ask these kinds of questions, you need to provide more info such as:

- the make/model/age of the notebook
- the make/model/age of hard drive
- as much detail regarding what you've tried so far to solve the problem

Otherwise, you will get a wide array of responses...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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